First look at The Bandra Project, Mumbai’s newest restaurant

Joey does share his food. That's the first thing we learnt at The Bandra Project, the first of 18 new restaurants by Gourmet Investments, a company that runs one of Mumbai's favourite pizza place, PizzaExpress.

The Joey in question is Deepinder Batth, COO, Gourmet Investments, who shares his nickname with the Friends character. Batth takes tremendous pride in entertaining, bringing people together, hosting long lunches—things we discovered over a three-hour lunch on a rainy afternoon.

A faux pond speckled with lily pads had raindrops falling on it all afternoon. It made up for a pretty backdrop to my scenic luncheon. We forget this is Bandra on a weekday, as we sip on espresso martinis sitting on one of their ‘thinking tables'. “These are designed for one, the diner's job is to sit and just ponder,” quips Ramit Mittal, CEO of Gourmet Investments.

The duo is set to bring out a space whose vibe is at par with their vibrant personalities, and a menu that changes as per your mood through the day.

In the morning when the sun shines brightly, we'd like to savour Shakshuka, an Israeli breakfast preparation of poached eggs on a bed of tomato and pepper sauce, or a gluttonous peanut butter-jelly and banana sandwich, fat, rightly buttered and toasted to perfection.

During lunch hour, it is going to be tough to choose between healthy mushroom stroganoff served with wild rice and barley and tossed veggies on the side, or a plate of East Indian bottle masala spiced spaghetti served with two juicy pieces of fresh mussels.

The Bandra Project is one of the first of the 18 ‘projects' that are about to come up in a year or so. “Each of these is inspired by the locality it is housed in. So the Palladium branch will be inspired by high fashion, the Colaba and Khar outlets will have influences of the club culture and so on,” shares Mittal. This restaurant therefore has several East Indian influences in their dishes, like local bottle masala spiced prawns on toasted ragi pancakes.

Similarly, the decor has glimpses of Portuguese culture, intrinsic to Bandra, in the form of stone walls, street art on coasters, aprons and the entrance, as an ode to the abundant street artists of this area and so on.

“The restaurant is designed by Urban Studio while The Busride Design Studio was on top of things as consultants. This will be standard for all upcoming projects so we can maintain a level of consistency,” shares Batth.

The Bandra Project is so far only a prototype for what's to come in the years' time. And a good one at that. With a menu that changes every three months and an ever-evolving decor, we are only excited about what's coming next on our plate and area.